- Time of past OR future Camino
- Via Gebennensis (2018)
Via Podiensis (2018)
Voie Nive Bidassoa (2018)
Camino Del Norte (2018)
We're back in Covarrubias, to explore the Camino San Olav as an alternative to walking to Burgos.
The forum has a dedicated sub-forum to this Camino, with a wealth of information. @peregrina2000 wrote a great introduction, and documented her walk after that. @peregrina2000 recorded her tracks starting from Santo Domingo de Silos (day 1, day 2, day 3).
@alexwalker wrote a guide for this Camino. You'll find his guide in the resources section of the forum. I'll also be using that to help me, and I have learned to read backwards as I will be walking in the opposite way to which the guide was written.
I am also consulting the Camino de San Olav website, which I assume is an official reference. To assist with distances (which I will keep approximate), I will also use their tracks.
We won't be alone on this Camino. There are a number of veterans, @peregrina2000 , @VNwalking , @alexwalker , @Bad Pilgrim to name a few.
As for previous virtual Caminos, my bias will be to look at stages for slow walkers. So although most pilgrims will walk this Camino in three days, we might take longer.
So here we go...
Day 29a. Covarrubias - Mambrillas de Lara. 14 km
The most recent pilgrim experience I have read is that of @Bad Pilgrim :
From the chapel, the walk goes up to a ridge, and then down to the village of Mambrillas de Lara. Having looked at the profile of the walk, the slow walkers are happy that this stage is not longer than 14 km.
@Bad Pilgrim bypassed the village, walking further. One comment he made, though, makes me think that this is a Camino for which one might need to have GPS tracks, or a good map with the path drawn on it.
You also need to carry water and food. @alexwalker notes in his guide:
In Mambrillas de Lara, there is the Casa Rural El Rincón del Alfoz. Ana, the hostess, is very friendly, and might arrange to take you to LaraSauro, where you can see dinosaur tracks:
We have an alternative, in case we can't stay in Mambrillas de Lara, and that is to see if we can get a lift to Hortigüela, just down the road, and stay at the Hostal La Moruga. This was @peregrina2000 's option in 2016:
EDIT: going through other threads, I have omitted to add another option concerning accommodation, and this was provided by @VNwalking :
The forum has a dedicated sub-forum to this Camino, with a wealth of information. @peregrina2000 wrote a great introduction, and documented her walk after that. @peregrina2000 recorded her tracks starting from Santo Domingo de Silos (day 1, day 2, day 3).
@alexwalker wrote a guide for this Camino. You'll find his guide in the resources section of the forum. I'll also be using that to help me, and I have learned to read backwards as I will be walking in the opposite way to which the guide was written.
I am also consulting the Camino de San Olav website, which I assume is an official reference. To assist with distances (which I will keep approximate), I will also use their tracks.
We won't be alone on this Camino. There are a number of veterans, @peregrina2000 , @VNwalking , @alexwalker , @Bad Pilgrim to name a few.
As for previous virtual Caminos, my bias will be to look at stages for slow walkers. So although most pilgrims will walk this Camino in three days, we might take longer.
So here we go...
Day 29a. Covarrubias - Mambrillas de Lara. 14 km
The most recent pilgrim experience I have read is that of @Bad Pilgrim :
Let's not engage in any debate about the style of the chapel here. Some love it, some hate it. The official Camino de San Olav will obviously take you there, as that is the goal of this Camino.From Covarrubias there are 3 kms to reach the ermita, hidden at the feet of the mountain. As Alex Walker says, it leaves no one indifferent. I have read elsewhere that some pilgrims are disappointed when they see it. They think it will be like your usual stone-and-brick ermita from the XIV century... And they get what looks like a rusty container merged with a recycling bin.
From the chapel, the walk goes up to a ridge, and then down to the village of Mambrillas de Lara. Having looked at the profile of the walk, the slow walkers are happy that this stage is not longer than 14 km.
@Bad Pilgrim bypassed the village, walking further. One comment he made, though, makes me think that this is a Camino for which one might need to have GPS tracks, or a good map with the path drawn on it.
There were no San Olav waymarks but someone had put stones at the borders of the trail, kind of the remnants of a calzada romana, which I followed in every intersection. [...]
This set the tone for the rest of this Camino, with me being afraid I would continue to be confused and finally get lost.
You also need to carry water and food. @alexwalker notes in his guide:
There is nothing on this stretch: No cafe, no village, no nada. But the stretch itself is peaceful and beautiful. Trust the content of your backpack.
In Mambrillas de Lara, there is the Casa Rural El Rincón del Alfoz. Ana, the hostess, is very friendly, and might arrange to take you to LaraSauro, where you can see dinosaur tracks:
Dona Ana will be more than happy (she actually suggested it, thanks) to take you for a 10 mins easy walk to see the dinosaur park, with its more than 140 million years old petrified footsteps of these ancient giants
We have an alternative, in case we can't stay in Mambrillas de Lara, and that is to see if we can get a lift to Hortigüela, just down the road, and stay at the Hostal La Moruga. This was @peregrina2000 's option in 2016:
we moved to Plan B, which involved calling the Taberna Moruga in Hortigüela, which as you can see on that google map is a few kms down the road from Mambrillas de Lara. The owner came to pick us up.
It's a nice place run by a young couple, who opened up in the middle of the crisis and four years later are still there. I wouldn't say business is booming, but they had a respectable turnout and we had a really good dinner at about 9 pm -- cauliflower gratin, veal burger and ice cream. We had a few hours between shower and dinner, so we made the rounds in town and saw there is another bar where we had a drink, and a closed hotel.
The owner dropped us back off the next morning after breakfast
EDIT: going through other threads, I have omitted to add another option concerning accommodation, and this was provided by @VNwalking :
[And long after it was any use to you, Laurie, I finally found the card for the place where I stayed in Villaespasa; it was a lovely pension, and the proprietors were incredibly helpful, picking me up at Mambrillas and taking me back there the next morning:
Casa Julita, C/. San Jose, 10 09650 Villaespasa.
674 69 19 04 and 673 35 75 30]
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